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Former Manchester United coach lands Qatar FA role

Dutch coach Meulensteen, who spent the last six years at Old Trafford, is set for a new adventure.

Rene Meulensteen will not be making a return to the Premier League after the Dutch coach confirmed, via Twitter, that he had taken up a new role with the Qatar Football Association. The 49-year-old first arrived at Old Trafford as a youth coach back in 2001, spending five years at this level before moving into the role of manager of the Manchester United reserve team.

In 2006 he departed for the role of first team coach of Danish club Brondby but was soon back in Manchester, rejoining Sir Alex Ferguson’s staff as technical skills development coach a year later.

His success in this role saw Meulensteen eventually promoted to the role of first team coach in January 2008, a position he stayed in until David Moyes’ appointment earlier this year, with the former Toffees boss opting to draft in his own backroom staff.

The Dutchman soon found himself linked with a number of managerial positions, with Wigan Athletic among those clubs believed to have been interested in recruiting his services.

But Meulensteen ultimately opted to take up the vacant manager’s position at big-spending Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala, a move that proved disastrous after billionaire owner Suleiman Kerimov opted to slash the team’s budget and fire the Dutch coach just 16 days after hiring him.

Out of a job once again, the former Manchester United man found himself linked with a host of new roles, including a potential return to Old Trafford, with many suggesting Moyes had been too hasty in shedding the coaching staff that had enjoyed rich success alongside then manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

But any faint hopes of a Meulensteen return look to have been extinguished now, with the coach taking to Twitter to announce that he has landed a brand new role with the Qatar FA ahead of the 2022 World Cup being hosted in the region.

He tweeted: 'My new job will be Technical Director of the Qatar FA. A venture I have given much thought to. Thanks again for your support and kind words.'

Meulensteen has some experience in the region, having previously managed the Qatar Under-18 team from 1993 to 1999, before one-year stints at Al-Ittihad and Al-Sadd.

Jack Beresford

Jack is a 27-year-old writer with experience in writing about sport in a range of guises. He’s something of a statto when it comes to soccer and has a passion for English football at all levels, as well as Serie A and the Bundesliga.